Deep Fried Kudzu

The November 15th Martha Stewart daytime show had Shania Twain on as the guest, and in the last few minutes of that episode, Martha showed how to make perfume sachets. The thing that made these different was that perfume was sprayed onto rice (which she says holds the scent) and then tucked into little squares of fabric that were sewn.

I made these while watching television - it only took about twenty minutes to set everything up and make five sachets.

To make them, you'll need plain, uncooked rice (1/2 lb=about 5 sachets), fabric, ribbon or twine, scissors, disposable cups, and perfume.

Here are the instructions:

First, fill a disposable cup about 1/5 - 1/4 full of the uncooked rice, and spray inside three or four times with one of your favorite perfumes. You can jiggle the cup while you're spraying so that more of the rice gets scented.


Next, cut a piece of fabric about the same size as a sheet of paper (8-1/2 x 11). I used a pretty fabric with a lace quality (although there weren't any holes large enough for the rice to slip through). Overturn the scented cup of rice onto the center of the fabric:


Gather the corners, and tie tightly with twine or ribbon.


Gather the top of the fabric now that it's been tied and the rice forms a pouch at the bottom. Cut the fabric straight across the top - when you do, you'll see that the top is even all around and looks really nice:


Here are the five sachets I made (I used Bobbi Brown Beach, Jil Sander #4, Fresh Wisteria, Fracas de Robert Piguet, and Ciara - which was my Nanny's favorite perfume and is sentimental to me):


The little sachets turned out great! BTW, when Martha made them on her show (her instructions are here), she sewed pieces of fabric together to make square sachets - I decided to make my sachets this way so that no sewing was involved and months later from now when they are losing their scent, I can simply untie them, give the rice a spray or two, and tie back up. Nice!

I got some magnolia leaves and decided to make a pretty garland:


UPDATE: Gosh! I hate to do this but someone on eBay lifted my picture above and used it to sell their magnolia leaves. They never asked my permission, and what's more, when contacted them about it (the person that did this is seller ID terriiii), they didn't even send me back an apology! Nothing! Not very nice.

Just an "I'm sorry" would have gone a long way. Who doesn't know to do that!?

I did notice that other people on eBay have magnolia leaves for sale, and one called scubamom333 even makes her own wreaths too. You might want to check her listings.

Anyway. Sorry to have even had to put that up there.

I figure I can get at least three uses out of the garland each year: I can hang it at Chanukah (decorating with a runner of blue and silver ribbons), drape it on a table with other plants at Tu B'Shevat, and also use it to decorate the sukkah each year. If I get really inspired, I might make more garlands just so they'll make the sukkah look even more pretty.

Magnolia leaves are beautiful when they're fresh and they dry beautifully too, so you can find other uses for them.

If you want to use a magnolia garland as one of your Christmas decorations, just add red or green ribbon, or hot-glue some holly in so it looks Christmas-y. Garland doesn't 'belong' to any religious tradition, so since it's a Winter thing, I imagine that it would be really neat no matter what you happen to celebrate (or if you don't celebrate anything, just a nice part of the outdoors to have inside the home) - just add something to it so that it reflects who *you* are.

Anyway, this was my first time to make a magnolia garland, but it turned out to be just so easy.

You'll need magnolia leaves (my garland used about 250), green floral wire, hot glue gun, snippers to cut the floral wire, and pretty ribbon to decorate and hang the garland once you're done. This project took me about two hours to complete:

(Above:) I took three magnolia leaves at a time and twisted floral wire around each one. I tried to keep the garland in this pattern - one leaf to the right, one leaf in the middle, one leaf to the left. Every now and then, turn the magnolia leaf over so that the pretty bronze side of the leaf shows. Just add each new leaf at the bottom of the one before it so you keep working 'down'.

(Above:) Before long, you'll have a nice length of garland! The leaves that I turned over to show their pretty bronze side make it even nicer.

(Above:) once you have a length of garland long enough for where you want to hang it, turn the whole thing over, and just hot-glue some leaves over where the floral wire shows. It'll only take a minute to do this part.

(Above:) Next, just tie ribbon around each end of the garland, and hang it! I put some pretty blue/silver ribbons around the garland it so it really ties in with my menorahs and candles. If you like, you could put your garland down the center of the dining table with some candles around - that would be pretty, too.

I think buckeyes are really pretty, and I got an idea to make them into a garland for my fireplace mantel. I got 50 jumbo buckeyes from a gentleman selling them on eBay, used mono filament for string (it's in the jewelry section at the crafts store), and in between each of the buckeyes, I strung on four 4mm silver beads. In the picture below, I also show some tiny blue beads, but they were too small to be threaded on with the needle (regular sewing needle) I used.


This project was so easy! Av took the buckeyes, and with a very small drill bit, just drilled a hole right through each of them. I threaded a line of mono filament onto a regular sewing needle, slipped it through a buckeye, then four silver beads went on, then another buckeye, etc. until they were all on! To make the garland look 'finished', I just secured each end of the garland with ribbon, and tied each of those ends into a bow. The whole project was was super-simple and took maybe 45 minutes to complete.

Okay, just one more thing about Project Alabama - I noticed that on their website they not only have photos from the *amazing* Spring 2006 show, but they also have a really unique catalogue online, featuring clothes from the Fall 2005 line.

The catalogue was done as a Southern Foodways Alliance Oral History Initiative - there are of course wonderful pictures of the Project Alabama clothes alongside quotes and recipes (deviled eggs, peach dumplings, etc.). Frank Stitt is featured on a few pages...he's quoted, talking about his grandmother's garden in Cullman - and he supplies a recipe for asparagus with crawfish meuniere. Frank wears Project Alabama clothes as does everyone else in the book.

The project has a home-y feel without being dowdy; it's real - you can imagine yourself wearing these clothes (never mind that these clothes cost in the thousands).

The Fall 2005 catalogue can be found here.

The Fall 2004 catalogue is also worth a look - it's here.

I've been thinking that it might be nice to place fabric at the backs of the built-in bookcases in our living room....that whole end of the room seems just really white and a little boring. I was originally thinking of using MDF and covering that with fabric, but just last week, the Style Network (which is running the old episodes of Martha Stewart Living) had an episode of MSL dated 2005 and called the 'special decorating show'....and on this show, Martha was decorating a curio cabinet just like I was thinking, except she used foam board as the base. What a great idea! Seeing the show gave me new inspiration for finally doing this project - and using her idea for foam board rather than MDF....

Just hot-glue fabric around the foam board (at Office Depot), making a hole with an Exacto if you need to make space for an electrical outlet, it's just that easy:

Here's the pie I made for Av's family Thanksgiving - it's a pecan pie with bourbon and chocolate. Here's the recipe & pictures:

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie

3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 c. sugar
2 tbsp. butter, melted and cooled (so it's not super-hot when you add it to the bowl)
1 c. corn syrup (Karo)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. bourbon - I used Maker's Mark
semi-sweet chocolate chips (enough to cover the bottom of the pie crust)
pecans (enough to cover the bottom of the pie crust)
pie crust

Directions:

Put chocolate chips in to cover the bottom of the pie crust:


...then, cover that with pecans. This all floats to the top when the pie cooks, so don't worry about adding the pecans to the liquid mixture:


Stir together in a bowl the sugar, eggs, butter, corn syrup, vanilla, and bourbon:


...pour that into the pie crust (the pecan pieces float right up to the top):


Bake at 375* for 40-60 minutes until it doesn't jiggle in the middle (but be careful not to overcook). This one came out perfectly...can't wait to have it for Thanksgiving supper!

Well, I *just* got done making all my pies for this Thanksgiving! Here's my inventory that I started with:

...and ten hours later here are most of the pies (I always make 25+ pies for a church that serves lunch on T'giving for a big crowd of hungry people in their neighborhood, plus another couple for Av's family's Thanksgiving). Below are pumpkin, pecan, apple, hot fudge, and buttermilk coconut pies.

If you like coconut pies, here's the recipe I use - it's soooo simple, and the pie always turns out *wonderful*:

Buttermilk Coconut Pie

1-1/2 c. sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
1 stick butter
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
grated coconut - use as much or as little as you like - I use about 1/3 the bag per pie
pie crust

Preheat the oven to 350*. Meanwhile, mix everything together. Once the oven gets to 350*, pour the mixture into your pie crust, and bake for 45 -60 minutes. When the top gets golden and doesn't jiggle in the middle, it's done!

Today I started my annual Paperwhite and Amaryllis bulb forcing - it's one of my very favorite things, because it really lightens up the inside of our home when nothing else is blooming, and the paperwhites make whatever room they're in smell *amazing*!

Here's my setup:
I bought one amaryllis and 18 paperwhites - today I started the forcing the amaryllis and four of the paperwhites. I'll force another three or four paperwhite bulbs each Monday until I run out (or decide to buy more and keep going ) so that we'll have paperwhites blooming for a couple of months.
I use a bigger pot (the green/pink one) for the amaryllis, and canning jars and carafes for the paperwhites.
I also use a variety of stones and marbles to set the paperwhite bulbs in:


This is the pot for the amaryllis - you can use either water (like I do) or pro-mix to pot the amaryllis in. I've put some glass pieces in the bottom so that the bulb is stable:


Then I just pop the amaryllis bulb in, and fill the pot with water just to the base of the bulb (not any further, because then you might have to deal with bulb-rot (ick)) - but always covering every bit of the roots:


With that done, I took a quart canning jar, put marbles in to a depth of about three inches, and then just popped a paperwhite bulb on top:


...same for this paperwhite bulb. This one has a pretty turquoise stones at the bottom:


This paperwhite I did differently - I have some carafes, and I just place the paperwhite bulb in the mouth of the bottle, and fill with water to the bottom 1/3 of the bulb. These are *really* neat because since the bottle is clear, you'll get to see the roots growing.


Here are the paperwhites I started forcing today. I'll just put them in a nice sunny window (they even do okay without a lot of sun - I've had them all over the house and no matter what, they always turn out really well, it seems). The only upkeep they need is to make certain that the roots always have water. They'll start blooming between four-six weeks from now, and after they're all done, you can save them and plant them in the yard to bloom for next year.

I'll take more pictures once they start growing...

I know, this happened two months ago - but I just found that the New York Magazine site has the runway collection for Project Alabama's Spring 2006 line at their website.

More reviews of the show are here and here.

This is the bio of Natalie Chanin at the NYMetro site:

Designer Natalie (a.k.a. "Alabama") Chanin founded Project Alabama in 2000. Her line of handmade chic items ranges from recycled T-shirts to painted-on eveningwear. Chanin uses local seamstresses to create all designs and does her part for the environment by recycling T-shirts and other items. In 2005 the label will introduce a new line of its celebrated T-shirts at more affordable prices and is one of three finalists for the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Fashion and one of 10 designers up for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund.

Av and I picked up this great new rooster from Cat Head in Clarksdale - isn't it great?


It was done by Lou Cirilli, who's from Clarksdale but lives in Canton, MS now. She, along with Sherri Barr, have Mud Hut Clay Works...more of their pottery can be found at the Southern Breeze Gallery in Jackson.

The other day at the bookstore, I saw that Rachael Ray has a new magazine - it's Every Day with Rachael Ray (not Everyday with Rachael Ray). She seems to be on Food Network a *lot*, but for some reason I've never watched any of her shows....just a minute or two here or there.

I brought the magazine home, and it was really better than I expected - in fact, I'm going to subscribe (the link for the magazine is here).

The contents are written in a very 'familiar' way - for instance, her letter is called "Rach's Notebook", where she writes, "...come on, get closer! We Every Day-ers don't bite, unless we're hungry." There's a glossary of "Rachael-isms" (like 'EVOO' (extra-virgin olive oil), 'Yum-O', and 'Eyeball It'), and in the recipe that I made, it was noted not to 'freak out' when the oil smokes. Anyway, it's just different from other food magazines....I don't mean that it's different in a bad way....I guess the idea is that the contents seem more Rachael Ray throughout, rather than just having her on the cover & using her name...which I like.

Sooo...I decided to make one of the recipes in the section called 'Bowl Games' - it's a section for food that's perfect to snack on for game-day. The recipe is called 'Super Bowl - Mashed Super Skins with Steak-and-Pepper Hash':

Ingredients (I halved the recipe set for 4 (the quantities below are for 2 servings)...and we still had *lots* of leftovers):

2 large Idaho potatoes
salt
olive oil (she calls out for vegetable oil and butter, but since this is a meat dish I used olive oil exclusively)
1 garlic clove, chopped
2 scallions, chopped
1/2 lb. sirloin steak, thinly sliced into pieces about 3" long and 1/4-1/2" wide
freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce (I used a little more than that, and used Dale's instead of Worcestershire)
1 poblano chile pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
2 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 lime, cut into wedges
soy milk (I used soy milk - she calls out for 1/4 c. milk, 1/4 c. sour cream, and 5 oz. shredded sharp cheddar cheese. The purpose of this is to make the mashed potatoes creamy.)

Directions:

Cut the potatoes into chunks and add them to a pot with cold water covering them. Bring to a boil, season with salt, and keep cooking until they're tender - which for me was around 18 minutes.


Over low/med heat, add olive oil, garlic, and scallions to a small skillet and cook until they get to be a nice golden color (she says to cook for about five minutes):

When they potatoes are tender, drain the water from the pan they're in, mash the potatoes, add the cooked garlic/scallion mixture (above), and add the soy milk or the dairy products until you get a nice mashed potato consistency.

Heat a large skillet with olive oil over high heat. Season the steak and add it to the pan. Brown the meat, and season with the sauce.


There wasn't room in the pan to add the vegetables like she suggested, so I just let the steak rest in a plate, and added the red onion and poblano peppers at that time:


I cooked the onions and peppers together for a few minutes, then added the steak back to the pan, and put in the thyme. I stirred this around for a couple of minutes, and it was all set (at the very end, squeeze the lime juice over this).


Here's the dish all put together...the mashed potatoes on the bottom and the steak mixture (including the juice/sauce from that pan) on top. It's not a fancy dish, but it was pretty good...especially for one of those days when you just want something simple:

The November 4th episode of the new Martha Stewart daytime show featured her making ultrasuede Fall leaf table decorations - in particular, placemats (on her website here). I really liked the idea of making my own Fall placemats...and because I got the suede at 50% off at Hancock Fabrics, the whole project cost only about $18!

First of all, here's what's needed for the project, to make eight placemats:
One yard each of two complementary ultrasuede colors
One yard of Heatnbond
fabric scissors
fabric glue (unless you can sew) for making clean placemat edges
paper for drawing the leaf on (or you can use her template here). I just free-handed an oak leaf shape so they didn't look just *so* perfect - more wabi-sabi. My oak leaf was about 12" long.
scissors for cutting out the template (if you make your own)
a marker for drawing the shape of the template
iron

Directions:

Take the two colors of fabric, and decide which to make the leaves out of


Cut the one yard of fabric into eight placemats (I just cut it in half width-wise, and each of those two strips into four, so I would up with a total of eight). This makes the perfect size placemat.


Here are the placemats all cut out now. This is the part to either sew the edges, or use fabric glue to fold over all the edges so they're neat and don't fray.


Next, iron the Heatnbond onto the fabric that you'll be cutting the leaves out of. While you're ironing, you'll be able to 'feel' with the iron when each section is bonded completely - it only takes a few seconds per section.


Next, draw the template leaf shape onto the fabric that has the Heatnbond ironed to it (you'll be drawing on the Heatnbond paper), then cut it out. Don't pull off the Heatnbond paper until you're ready to iron it to the placemat. In the picture below, you can see that I took the scissors and marked leaf veins into this leaf....I did that to all of them and it turned out really well (although it doesn't show up so much in this picture).


Now, peel the Heatnbond off the leaf. In the picture below (at full size) you can see that the fabric's underside, where the Heatnbond was ironed to, has a new texture on it.


Turn the leaf over (the Heatnbond paper has been removed) and put it on the placemat exactly where you want it to go. Just iron over the leaf until it doesn't peel - I did it one or two minutes, and that worked perfectly.


...and here they are, finished! I really like the way they turned out. I can also see how they could be embellished more, but for now, I'm just enjoying how simple and neat they look.

I *finally* got to Peter's Pottery in Mound Bayou! First of all, here's what I got:

This pair of very simple, short candlesticks - I really like the glaze on these.


This rabbit pinch-pot. I just really like everything about it - the bunny, the shape, etc. It's a happy little piece.


Peter's Pottery is in Mound Bayou, MS. It was started by the Woods brothers, who originally apprenticed under the McCartys in Merigold.




I thought much of their inventory was very similar to McCarty Pottery (which is just down the road in Merigold). The brothers use Mound Bayou clay to make their pots and have a signature glaze.




See these bunny canisters below, on the left? I really-really-really like those!


Mound Bayou is a very interesting place. It was founded in 1887 by Isaiah T. Montgomery and his cousin Benjamin T. Green. Isaiah Montgomery was a former slave of Joseph Emory Davis, Jeff Davis' brother, and his father was Joseph Davis' assistant and plantation business manager, helping work on the new model of day-to-day operations at Hurricane Plantation. The reforms included a slave hospital, slave court (w/ slave jury), etc.

Isaiah moved from Hurricane Plantation to another formerly Davis-owned plantation Brierfield (they were incredibly successful there after the war), to Vicksburg, when he and his cousin picked out some land in Bolivar County in 1887 that was owned by a railroad. He wrote to Jeff Davis asking that he request the railroad sell them 840 acres. Not only did that happen, but by 1902, the Mound Bayou Corporation had 20,000 acres in its name.

Mound Bayou was founded as a cooperative community of freed slaves - it was Isaiah Montgomery's dream to found the "largest Negro U.S. town" (the 2000 census put the percentage of Blacks living there at 98.43%). The history there is really *so* interesting - there's much, much more at the Mound Bayou website (just click on 'history').

The two pictures below are of Isaiah T. Washington's home, which is supposed to be under renovation:




This is a pic I took of the Mound Bayou water tower - I like the town's symbol (it's also here at their website).